Why are my pages not being indexed?
Submitting & Indexing
Search Console tells you, URL by URL. Open the Page indexing report: every page Google knows about but hasn't indexed is grouped under a reason. Some reasons mean something blocks Google (noindex, robots.txt, a 404, a server error); others are Google's own choice, such as treating a page as a duplicate or crawling it and deciding not to index it yet. Fix the blocks you didn't intend and improve the pages Google passed over.
Reasons that mean something is blocking Google
| Reason in the report | What it usually means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Server error (5xx) | Your server failed when Googlebot asked | Check server logs and capacity at the crawl times |
| Redirect error | A redirect chain, loop or broken target | Point links and redirects straight at the final URL |
| URL blocked by robots.txt | A rule stops Googlebot fetching the page | Remove the rule if the page should be indexed |
| URL marked 'noindex' | A meta tag or header tells Google not to index | Remove it from pages you want in Search |
| Soft 404 | The page looks like an error or an empty page | Return a real 404, or give the page real content (soft 404s) |
| Blocked due to unauthorized request (401), access forbidden (403), or other 4xx issue | A login, firewall or bot filter turns Googlebot away | Let Googlebot through, or accept that the page stays private |
| Not found (404) | The URL doesn't exist | Fine if the page is gone; fix internal links if it isn't |
Reasons that are Google's decision
- Crawled - currently not indexed: Google fetched the page and chose not to index it for now. Usually a sign the page adds too little; see crawled, not indexed.
- Discovered - currently not indexed: Google knows the URL but hasn't crawled it yet (discovered, not indexed).
- Alternate page with proper canonical tag: working as intended.
- Duplicate without user-selected canonical: set a canonical so you choose the version, not Google.
- Duplicate, Google chose different canonical than user: your signals disagree with each other (canonical URLs).
- Page with redirect: the URL redirects, so its target is indexed instead (pages with redirects).
Working through the report
- Set the sitemap filter to All submitted pages to focus on URLs you asked Google to index, rather than every URL it stumbled on.
- Open a reason and inspect a few example URLs with the URL Inspection tool, using the live test to see the page as it is now.
- Fix the cause in your templates, then click Validate fix. Google says validation typically takes up to about two weeks and can take longer (Page indexing help).
- Don't chase a perfect score. Google itself says not to expect every URL to be indexed; the goal is the canonical version of every important page.
For a brand-new site, patience is part of the answer. Google doesn't guarantee that it will crawl, index or serve any page, and discovery takes time: see how long indexing takes.
How AutoPSEO helps
The Index Tracker inspects up to 1,800 chosen URLs on a daily schedule and alerts you when one drops out of the index or comes back. Before the content engine writes an article, it checks the topic against the pages your site already has, so it doesn't publish near-duplicates that Google would only fold into an existing page.
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